Forging of the Orcs
by Draco's Ravenclaw
Summary: This is pre LOTR, Morgoth is bent on creating a creature capable of conquering Middle Earth and will stoop to any low to achieve it.
1. The Audience

Right, anonymous reviewer person, I have tried to remedy the errors you pointed out. Anyone wishing to help me out with the finer points of Tolkein's mythology please email me at laura.bates@ntlworld.com  
  
"Whee've found them fooor you Masster."  
  
The little pathetic Schram danced nervously before the great throne. It's wheedling voice almost lost amidst the roar and clatter of the city outside. The figure on the throne rose, his black cloak rippling as he did so. The Schram emitted a whine of terror and Morgoth lowered his hood and fixed him with a deadly gaze.  
  
"Bring them before me."  
  
"Yessss, yessss Great one, mighty one!" The Schram bowed itself out.  
  
All around the court of Morgoth pressed forward eager to see who would be brought before the Lord of Middle Earth. The clank of many chains could be heard coming up the corridor to the audience chamber. The doors opened and several Elves were propelled roughly through them. They were chained together by the wrists and the ankles, which forced them to shuffle slowly past the assembled court who hissed and cackled with a mixture of fear and glee.  
  
The creature escorting the prisoners pulled sharply on the chain he held. All seven Elves were jerked to a halt. They stared around the high chamber; their faces were blank, betraying nothing but in their eyes danced a spark of resilience and determination. Morgoth approached them quickly. He came to a halt by the leader, a tall dark haired man, ageless like all the elves and a look that spoke of much wisdom.  
  
"So Elf-man, what is your name?"  
  
"I will speak not to evil such as you Dark one."  
  
Morgoth turned aside. "It matters not Elf-man , I will have what I need in time."  
  
The crowd pressed forward even further. The Elves could smell death and decay in the breath of their captors. After a short pause Morgoth continued,  
  
"would you like to know why I had you brought here Elf-man?"  
  
He waited for a few seconds staring deeply into the green eyes of his prisoner. Suddenly he snapped his fingers, the Schram rushed forward cowering and babbling.  
  
"Show the Elf-man Clarf." Morgoth hissed.  
  
The Elves were pulled towards a precipice that fell sharply hundreds of feet to the city of Utumno below. It was cavarous, descending as far into the earth as an eye could see, and beyond. Fires could be glimpsed raging in the depths and the stench that rose from it was putrid and rotting.  
  
"Why would you want to show us that? I have seen sights more splendid and terrifying than that ."  
  
A new voice had spoken. It belonged to an Elf with long blonde hair and a sharp pointed face. His face showed a hint of apprehension as Morgoth rounded on him.  
  
"I am aware of that Elf-man. That is not why I brought you here," Morgoth now turned to address the entire chamber.  
  
"I have studied much Dark Magic, delved deeply into the twisted depths of the other-world, read many Tomes by the Black Wizards. Through this I have discovered a process to create a creature more deadly than any under my control. It would increase the strength of our army a hundredfold we would over-run Middle Earth in days. No creature living within these lands can stand before it."  
  
The crowd loved it. They bayed and howled, praising Morgoth and all his works.  
  
"An Orc, my friends, an Orc. These fine Elves, for all their pretensions of goodness, will one day serve me as my strongest and most loyal troops. Their lives will be dedicated to wiping out all their pretty little friends."  
  
"I will not join you Morgoth , whatever you do to me."  
  
The blonde elf had spoken again. Morgoth laughed derisively. "We'll see Elf- man, we'll see. Take them for the beginning of it, you know what to do."  
  
The demons guarding the doors nodded curtly and rose unanimously. One took the chain guiding the Elves while the other eight formed a barrier round the group. Already Utumno was affecting the bedraggled group. Their hair was beginning to lose it's lustre and the spark in their eyes began to dull, all that is except the Blonde elf who had spoken so forcefully. 


	2. Stone Coffins

They had been led down from Morgoth's chambers through many twisted blackened tunnels unlit by any warmth or comfort. The air grew bitterer with every step down the road, several Elves began to choke on the fumes. This was much to the amusement of their guards.  
  
Finally a pause to rest in their weariness, was this a mercy? This brief hope was quickly extinguished and one by one the Firstborn were imprisoned in lonely stone tombs. There were no windows in the doors for them to at least tell the hours. The only air to enter seeped in through the cracks where the door fitted badly, it was unbearable hot, they could not breathe, they could not see, they could not move. They found that if they bent down to the very edge of the doors they could whisper to one another for comfort in this dark hellish nightmare where they found themselves.  
  
"Faewin? Faewin are you there?"  
  
"I am." The leader of the elves sounded tired and distant.  
  
"Have they fed you?"  
  
"Not for three days, I think, I can't see the light in here."  
  
"They won't let you die. The fiend up there will see to that."  
  
"Don't get angry over it, there is nothing you or I can do."  
  
"There is though we can resist this. He's trying to use us for evil. We can resist."  
  
Faewin did not reply. The whispers of the elves pleading with him to speak fell upon deaf ears. In his cell the darkness was slowly encroaching and as it took it's strangling hold he began to lose all sense of the good in the world above. After many weeks his soul seemed about to burst and in one final effort to save itself it sang.  
  
"Darkness, darkness let me out of the darkness. I want to see the silver river to walk under the starlight once more."  
  
The song was unknown to any of the imprisoned Elves and yet it embodied the longing they all felt for freedom and an end to the physical and emotional darkness that pressed remorselessly upon them. Morgoth watched all this from his chambers high above the stone cells. A smile found the lips of the Dark Lord and he began preparations for the longest part of his plans.  
  
Besides each others frightened whispers there was but one sound the captured elves heard. The click and thud of their cells being unlocked when the guards had the inclination to feed them. It was always the same "Click" the heavy bolt would be drawn back. "Thud" the door would be pulled open and the food deposited. The sounds would then reverse themselves and the hours drag on once more.  
  
The blonde elf so determined at the start was still holding onto hope of escape. He sat hour after hour day after day in his cell trying to calm the raging beast rising inside him. He would not, he could not give in. He had seen the stars and the trees. He was going to see them again. The familiar sounds of clicks and thuds began to work their way along the row of cells. He was jolted out of his meditative state and awaited the food, which would soon quell the painful hunger pangs wracking his frail form.  
  
"Click, thud...the food was pushed through the narrow gap...thud." Breathlessly the Elf awaited the click which should have followed. He waited and waited, hours seemed to pass. There was no sound. Had the guards done the unthinkable?  
  
He pushed gingerly at the heavy wooden door. It moved! The heavy grating of wood on stone echoed up the passageway he did not stop. This was it, freedom! One final push and the door was fully open, he crawled out on all fours. His legs were horribly cramped after the many weeks of confinement and his eyes watered at even the dim light cast by the eerie green lamps. He stood slowly testing his legs. He found that after a few moments their strength began to return. His whole body quivering with joy he pulled open the locks binding his friends.  
  
"Amba, ama! A silma elin!"  
  
At his cry the elves rallied around him and began the weary climb back up to the star-lit lands they loved. Their breath hitched in their throats. Their limbs became like lead weights to be dragged with supreme effort. Still they kept climbing; the keenest ears among them could hear the stars song calling to them. The blonde elf led them, calling to Iluvatar in his heart he chose the secret paths that would lead them to the surface. Above them Morgoth gazed into the dark crystal orb and smiled a mirthless smile.  
  
"I smell the wind! I hear the stars!" Faewin cried as he hurried forth urging the exhausted elves onwards. A hundred yards in front of them they glimpsed a silver shaft of light piercing the gloom. With shouts of joy they rushed up the steep slope towards it. As they reached it they threw themselves into the pure circle of light and gazed transfixed at the beauty of the night sky spread out above.  
  
"SLAM!"  
  
The beauty of the stars disappeared in one fell swoop as the doors to the skies fell shut. The songs of rejoicing ceased abruptly and the elves stumbled in the dark listening and waiting for any indication of what was happening. A sinister low sound began to rumble down the stairs to the above. As it grew closer and louder they realised that it was a laugh, a low cruel laugh. Morgoth came into view.  
  
"So little first born you thought you were about to escape?"  
  
Silence. A deep painful silence more heart rending than the most sorrowful poem that had ever been written or was ever to be written.  
  
"You will never see the stars again Elves. You are dead to the Valar, you are mine to do with as I wish."  
  
"We are dead to no one...we."  
  
The blonde elf had tried to speak once more but was struck to the ground hard.  
  
"I have had enough of leaving you to your own devices. It's time I made you of some use to me."  
  
There was a movement from the prone elf. Morgoth turned on him savagely wielding his staff of power. When the elf regained consciousness he was back in his cell. 


	3. Unhinged

He was disoriented at first and unable to connect being that close to freedom and then suddenly here back in his cell. As his awareness returned to him he heard spine chilling screams of terror coming from Faewin's cell.  
  
"Not here! Not here again I can't go back in here! I can't breathe. I can't breathe!"  
  
The words ripped from his throat again and again. Occasionally when the elf became too exhausted from his efforts he would collapse against the doors and sob brokenly.  
  
"Celebehain tell Faewin to cease. I cannot rest."  
  
The blonde elf sighed deeply. "I cannot my friend. The evil here has unhinged his mind." "And soon it will take us too." He added quietly as Faewins hitched gulps for air grew louder. How he was to withstand what was coming Celebehain did not know. Somehow he must find the strength.  
  
Faewin's door was wrenched open. Celebehain could hear him screaming crying and begging as he was dragged away. His calls grew fainter and fainter.  
  
"I wish I had not called for his silence, it is better to hear any sound of a friend than no sound at all."  
  
Celebehain did not reply. He was trying to sleep and regain some strength. He did not have much chance. It was soon his turn to be dragged out of his cramped grave and go he knew not where.  
  
Rough hands pulling at his arms, forcing them into iron manacles, twisting them over his head and against his back. He was hauled to his feet gasping in agony as the muscles in his arms were contorted unnaturally.  
  
"Come on elf, you're needed."  
  
It wasn't as if he had a choice about going anywhere. The demon escorting him twisted the heavy chain tighter and tighter. The elf felt as if his arms were about to be torn from their sockets. He stopped dead in his tracks.  
  
"I can go no further like this."  
  
"Why is that little one?" His guards bared his teeth threateningly.  
  
Celebehain was not about to move. The chain was pulled creating new pain, still he wouldn't follow like a dog he was going to resist this. Finally the guard lost patience with inflicting pain to hear him gasp.  
  
"If you won't move then I will take you." With these words he aimed a swift kick at the elf's legs. Celbehain found himself face down on the ground and spitting out foul brown clods of dirt. He hadn't even got to his knees when the guard started walking once more. He was dragged across the rough mudstones face down. The sharp rocks tearing his clothes and the mud streaking his pale skin. They stopped.  
  
"Place him there."  
  
It was Morgoth, Celebehain shuddered against the wave of hatred that burst forth at the sight of the monster. He turned away as one of the Dark Lords many slave demons strapped leather restrainers over him pinning him to a rough slab of rock. It was set at roughly forty five degrees so the elf could see round the small circular chamber. What he saw did not cheer his soul in the slightest. Instruments of torture and pain lined the walls. A more macabre collection could not be found anywhere in middle earth.  
  
"So elf-man have you found some respect for me since our last meeting."  
  
"I will not respect you Morgoth."  
  
"When I am through with you we will see if you still speak so forcefully."  
  
The dark lord moved to the far side of the room and searched for a few moments in an old carved chest covered in runes. He returned to face the bound elf and held out a crystal bottle.  
  
"This vial is a Vhazid Yhre. In Elvish it translates as soul jar. I am going to need your soul little elf."  
  
He stared at his victim for a few seconds.  
  
"Now I can either torture you into insanity so that you will do anything I say, or you can give it up willingly now and save us all the time."  
  
"Or you can give up now because I will not surrender."  
  
An ugly laugh was emitted from Morgoth. "Brave words. Maybe an indication of what torture means." He barked out a few words in the black speech. Celebehain gritted his teeth against the anger he felt.  
  
Something was brought into the room, it was led like a faithful pet by a collar around it's neck. It was hideous. It's bald scalp was blistered and scarred, it's skin raw and charred from seemingly terrible flames. Celebehain turned away in disgust as the creature fawned up to the feet of the dark lord.  
  
"Look at this pitiful creature Elf, look closely." Morgoth seemed oddly amused. Fighting down the urge to recoil from the repulsive sight he looked. Then a terrible realisation hit him. The skin was distorted and scarred and all semblance of self had been stripped away but if one stared closely at the pale moonlike orbs in the creature's face they could perhaps catch a briefest glimpse of the elf that it used to be.  
  
"Faewin."  
  
A broken whisper of understanding and Celebehain sagged forwards. Clear tears fell from emerald eyes and cut trails of pale white skin against the filth on his face. His friend, his brother, his leader had been reduced to this. The loss pained him deeply and  
  
The creature spat and chattered at the name, hiding away from Celebehain behind what was now it's master. The once proud beautiful child of Iluvatar was ruined and corrupted beyond recognition.  
  
"You foul evil thing, how could you dare do this to another being." Celebehain raged straining against the straps. He didn't care what was done to him. He was going to revenge the evil that had destroyed his friend and brother.  
  
"I am not done with him yet Elf." The quiet amusement was still tangible in Morgoth's voice. "He still recognises what he once was. I have much work to do on him..and you." 


	4. Iron serpents

Lady Drea I apologise sincerely I really do but I don't wanna do any blood just yet...when it comes it will be copious ;) either that or I write a special fic for your eyes only ;)  
  
He was still strapped tightly to the stone table. His arms, which were fastened above his head had long ago become numb with cold and stiffness. Everytime he tried to move the sharp jagged edges in the rock bruised his bones. Finally he settled into a position that hurt the least and tried to bring some peace to his seething mind.  
  
The screams of Faewin as he was dragged away refused to stop reverberating inside his head. Over and over he heard the feral cries of a mind unhinged. He could not rest, he could not slip softly into the unconscious rest. When eventually exhaustion drove him to dreamless sleep he was not to be left long.  
  
When he was pulled reluctantly into awareness once more he found two figures standing over him. One was pulling his left arm into a higher and more uncomfortable positon. The joints flared with agony as they were forced to move against their will.  
  
"Wha.what are you doing?" He gasped, breathing in sharply as another rusty joint protested.  
  
The figures didn't reply. One of them produced a long rubber like tube with a cruelly curved metal spike embedded in one end. They moved above his head out of his sight. He could hear them breathing harshly in and out and muttering quietly to one another in their foul tongue.  
  
There was the briefest of pauses before a low menacing hiss emitted from by his left ear. In a purely reflex reaction he jerked his head away and came eye to eye with a thin black serpent, monstrous red eyes flamed against it's ebony scales. The two figures chuckled at his yells of horror.  
  
"Now then little elf this will hurt."  
  
The first words from the figures. He had barely time to register them before a searing agony flared in his left elbow. It was a burning and a cutting and a stabbing all at once. He tried to pull away and discovered why the two guards had fastened him so securely. He couldn't move his arm at all. It was bound tight with iron bands and the serpent, ,metal end first was burrowing into his flesh.  
  
It is hard to count the hours when one is in agony. Celebehain did not know how long he lay there, writhing in pain as the serpent performed it's evil task. At times the searing waves calmed and he was able to open his eyes. Beings stood around his place of torture. He never had time to see their faces before another shuddering pain pulsed through him squeezing his eyes shut.  
  
Then it stopped. It was so sudden that Celebehain did not move from his position of frozen expectancy. He became aware of faint hissing at the very edge of his perception. When he finally did open his eyes it was to see Morgoth standing over him looking distinctly amused.  
  
"I trust you are more comfortable now."  
  
Celebehain attempted to snap out a comment but found he was so weak he could barely lift his head. His very being ached with fatigue. What had the serpent done except to cause him pain?  
  
"Free him."  
  
Morgoth's servants did as they were ordered. As soon as the restraints were removed Celebehain collapsed to the floor. There was no strength left in him even to stand. He felt strangely disconnected from his body. He could not feel his legs and he seemed to be floating above himself.  
  
"Put him in a cell away from the others. See that he is fed, I don't want him dying before I have what I need."  
  
The guard hoisted him up rather roughly jarring his stiff muscles. Every step the guard landed heavily and Celebehain was bounced like a doll in his grip. Finally he was placed surprisingly gently upon a metal framed bed.  
  
"Someone will come with food for you."  
  
He lay facing the stone ceiling. He was still unable to move. His muscles were completely unresponsive. When he was in this peaceful equilibrium of stillness there was no pain. His mind was fogged still and he briefly felt himself returning to his former state of tranquillity.  
  
Smell punctuated the glorious peace he was in. It was a good smell, a creature had plonked down a bowl of foul grey goo on the floor beside him. It then stood back eyeing him expectantly. He made no move to eat. It wasn't for want of trying. He was ravenous with hunger and his stomach twisted painfully as he smelt the food once more.  
  
"Eat."  
  
The bowl was pushed closer. Celebehain thought he would faint if he did not taste food soon. Summoning his last reserves of strength he raised his head and half sat up.  
  
"Can't..."  
  
"Eat now or I will feed you like an infant."  
  
He couldn't respond anymore. He was pulled into a sitting position, when the creature let go he flopped over once more. Growling in frustration the guard sat on the bed and propped the stricken elf against him. He spoon fed the tasteless glop into his prisoner's mouth. When the bowl was emptied he left silently leaving the elf to his own thoughts. 


End file.
